


Sunset

by Kestrelwinter



Category: Kamen Rider Gaim
Genre: Boys Kissing, Crying, M/M, fics in which nothing happens, first fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 04:22:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4045768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kestrelwinter/pseuds/Kestrelwinter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hase and Jounouchi spend some time on a riverbank and don't talk about their feelings. Nope. Not even a little bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be perfectly honest, this is the first fic I've ever completed. I'm a bit late to game, I guess, but I wanted to go ahead and post this anyway.
> 
> Hopefully you enjoy it, and hey, I can always use the feedback, so any constructive criticism is appreciated.

The wind softly rustled through the drying grass along a certain river bank in Zawame city. It blew past two boys wrapped up in a very deep conversation; one that involved a great deal of staring blankly at the ground and saying very little.

Zawame had been a peaceful city for a long time,despite the tension between the two. As the conversation continued to not happen, the silence became uncomfortable, then stiff.

One boy, wearing a garish pink vest and glasses to match, began nervously chewing on a hangnail. He personally found it a rather undignified habit, but this was certainly a situation that warranted nail chewing.

The other boy, sat and stared up at the sky, pretending very hard to be interested in an uninteresting cloud. This boy,with his slicked back hair and half open shirt, would never admit that he had chosen this outfit for this conversation.

Today had started off innocently enough, Hideyasu Jounouchi reasoned. His longtime friend and rival Hase Ryoji had called him out in that unnervingly manly way, by texting him at 7 in the morning to see if he would join him for parfaits. Perfectly natural, it could have been any Saturday, really.

And even the parfait...meeting, as Jounouchi would be damned if he called it a date, was just like any other. Sure, there were more glances between them that lingered maybe a bit too long, and the way that Hase would gleefully steal spoonfuls of his parfait could, maybe, be construed as romantic to any passerby, but that hardly meant anything.

Then, of course, there was the walk to the riverbank. Hase had always told him this was his favorite spot, and as they walked in nervous silence down the stairs that lead to the water, he had taken a moment to consider that this was the place they met, just before the Invess game began. 

That day had also been summer, and it seemed as though so much time had passed, even though Jounouchi wasn’t sure that it really had. Hase had made a strong impression when they’d first met, he hadn’t even been paying attention as he walked up the stairs to the riverbank; they’d crashed and fallen to the ground.

“Hey, watch it, punk.” Those were the first words Hase had ever spoken to him.

He’d been far too flustered to come up with a witty comeback, but he had tried his best.  
“Hey you, watch...your damn...face.” Jounouchi had replied.

Hase had just laughed in response. It was a good natured laugh, and Jounichi’s first impression of the boy was changed The sound echoed in his head even now, after their long friendship and this awkward walk to the riverbank.

“Hey….” Hase began, trailing off. It wasn’t like him to be at a loss for words, Jounouchi thought, so this must be something really big to come from out of nowhere.

“Hey, Jou… Maybe it’s a little weird to say so suddenly, but would it be alright if I asked to kiss you?” 

Immediately, his heart opted to leap into his throat. That was pretty unexpected, and Jounouchi told him as much, as bravely as he could.

“W-w-w-what? What do you mean ‘kiss me’? Is this a joke, Hase-chan?” he stammered. Perhaps not as brave as he’d thought, but it was something.

Hase withdrew. Jounouchi watched it happen, his wild friend who was always the extrovert pulled into himself, as if making himself smaller.

A moment passed between the two.

“Hey...c’mon, Hase.” No response came back.. 

“Ryoji…” Jounouchi started to say something, anything that might register some kind of reaction was better than silence, as far as he was concerned.

That got Hase’s attention. His head snapped up, his face contorted back to the smiling boy he’d always been.

“Y-yeah, that’s it. Just joking, of course! Jeez Jou, yer such a damn nerd, why would I even wanna kiss a face like that?” He laughed a little, trying to sound as convincing “I’m just kidding man, it’s a joke. A joke.” 

Jounouchi replied with nervous laughter.

“Look, Jou, I’m sorry if I sprung that on you so suddenly, seriously, don’t get so stressed.”

“O-of course!” replied Jounouchi, the color in his face rising. He felt the tension returning, half from the newly discovered awkwardness, half from the idea of kissing Hase. “that’s ridiculous, why would I even think you wanted to kiss me anyway?”

Unintentionally, he imaged Ryoji’s rough lips grazing his.He felt the heat in his chest intensifying at the idea of that kiss, and the thought of wholly giving himself to this boy who knew him better than anything. He wished so dearly to surrender to that warmth the boy exuded. Even in the damp, summer humidity, Jounouchi thought he wouldn’t mind.His mind leapt to the same scenario happening in his apartment, over and over again, with fewer and fewer clothes each time and the blush crept further into his cheeks.

A rough cough forced him out of his daydream. He looked up to see Hase grinning the widest grin he’d ever seen the boy make. 

“Hase-chan, you’ll end up an old man with crow’s feet if you keep doing that.”

“Yeah, but maybe by then at least I’d know what you were thinkin’ about, Jou-chan.” he said teasingly.

Jounouchi thought he might pass out. This was too much for anyone to take, he had no idea how any of his friends had dated if loving someone meant this much intensity. Mercifully, his attention was drawn away by other people.

Further along the riverbank, a young boy was tossing stones into the river. An older woman, a sister perhaps, sat beside him. Hideyasu noticed her face was wholly at ease and he found himself intensely jealous of her calmness.

The boy looked about six, with hair short and blue clothing. He was excited, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. He’d pick up a rock from the side of the river bank, then gestured wildly to the woman, yelling “Aki-nee, Aki-nee! Watch how far I can throw this one!”

The woman would smile at him and watch the young boy’s attempt, which would fly perhaps a foot, then land in the water with a soft ‘plunk’. She would clap and cheer and say “that’s wonderful, Ko!” and then they’d repeat the process. Something about the boy’s enthusiasm resonated with Jounouchi. It was, he thought, like looking at a tiny Hase.

He laughed softly to himself and returned his gaze to the boy at his side, and fouind him about six inches away from him face.

“Whaa!” JounouchiHideyasu jumped back, startled. He suddenly remembered where he was and what he was doing, not that Hase’s complete disregard for personal space helped.

“Hase! What the hell are you doing?!” he asked frantically, genuinely unsure of what was going on.

“Nothin, man. I was just trying to see what you were lookin’ at. that’s all” Hase grinned and patted him on the shoulder.

Jounouchi stifled a gulp; this conversation really needed to be had, and something in the strained lines of Hase face told he wasn’t joking about the kiss earlier. 

If Jounouchi was honest with himself, as he now forced himself to be, he could admit that he’d fantasized about kissing Hase. This wasn’t even close to the first time. He blushed momentarily over that one night- no, he decided. Better not to get into that right now.

He had to say something, he saw that the sun was now making is gradual move to the horizon.

“Listen man,” Hase interrupted his inner monologue. “You know you can say whatever you wanna say to me, right? Hell, I did ask to kiss you and… to be honest, that was pretty embarrassin’, so if I can do that, what have you really got to lose?”

Jounouchi thought a moment. He considered all the times he had played at being a tactician and how it had utterly failed him each time. He thought about the training Oren had put him through, or was that just a daydream too? Either way, he certainly remember the pain and suffering he’d been forced through on a day to day basis well enough. Training to be a patissierepattissiere under the most brutal working conditions known to man wasn’t a thing one easily forgot.But then there was the city. He took a moment to look around, to try and regain his bearings. 

The riverbank wasn’t overly crowded, but people did pass by, men and women, children and elders. Each of them in their muffled conversation. There was an awful lot of crowd noise.

He was snapped back to reality, again, by his companion, who startled him by taking his chin in his hand and turning his head back to face him.

“Jou… I really don’t have all day, man. I’m a busy guy. I’ve got things to do, people to see an’ shit.” He sighed loudly.

“Man, I don’t know why I thought this’d be easy. I figured, ‘hell Ryoji, just take the boy on a good date, and he’ll fall head over heels, right?’ Well, I guess that ain’t how this song goes then, right?”

Jounouchi sank a bit. He was blowing it, he could tell. Even now, Hase was trying to reassure him, to let him know that the feelings he was feeling weren’t totally one-sided. In his overly direct and socially awkward way, Hase was trying to tell him that he loved him. For what it was worth now, that personality, while others might find off-putting, was one of Jounuchi’s favorite things about Hase. The way he’d say literally whatever was on his mind, with no real concern for social stigma.

“Idiot.” Jounouchi said, so soft, it was barely above a whisper.

“Huh?” Hase craned his neck. “I can’t hear ya, man.” 

Hase lay back along the riverbank with his hands behind his head.

“Idiot!” Jounouchi yelled. “You act like you don’t know how much you mean to me. You’re such a jerk sometimes, Hase-chan!” 

Hase was startled by the outburst.

“You know what... Fuck it!” Jounouchi said and jumped up from his seat stood over Hase for a minute, who was trying his best to pretend to keep his cool.

“You wanted this even more than I did, you idiot.”And with that, Jounouchi straddled Hase, on the grass of the riverbank, and kissed him.

 

Explosions rocked behind his eyes, his chest felt like a volcano. Hheat surgeding through him, reaching every point in his body. He could see the stars and galaxies and endless depths of the universe in this kiss. After the initial shock from the first, each kiss was an escalation, both of them dying for dominance, taking the time to feel out each others’ limits. They dared each other to move with their lips, and as far as Jounouchi could tell, he was losing.

With every kiss, Hase returned with more force that the last, and he wondered if Hase was trying to prove something to him or trying to convey his affection as well as his feelings in the moment.

Eventually, Jounouchi rolled off of Hase, gasping for air. They stayed a few minutes like that, sitting side by side, breathing heavily.

“So, I guess this means ya like me, huh?” Hase smirked.

“I guess.. I guess you could say that.” Jounouchi retorted.

Hase stood up, and offered his hand to the exhausted boy, who took it, stood up, and dusted himself off.

“Hey man,” Hase started with mock offense “it’s not like I’m dirty or anythin’.”

Jounouchi just laughed, a happy, genuine laugh that brought out a smirk in his companion.. He honestly hadn’t felt like thatheard in a while. That brought out a smirk from his companion.

The two stood side by side, hands touching, as the sun sank further down towards the horizon. He watched the boy along the bank continue to throw rocks into the river, while his sister applauded him. The boy noticed him watching on one of his trips to pick up a rock and waved. Jounouchi gave him a shy wave back and blushed at the acknowledgement of his staring.

“Well,” he said, turning back to Hase, “What do we do now? We could...go find some dinner, or head back to my place, if you wanted?”

Hase was quiet. His expression turned inward, and he seemed to be brooding.

“Look, Hase, you’re my first kiss, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

That snapped him out of his mood.

“No man, it’s not that” he said, laughing. “It’s just that… well, the sun’s going down.”

“Okay...and? We do have lives at night too, you know.”

“Jou...it’s not that simple. I had to work really hard to make this happen. There was a ton of prep involved and I had to call in a lot of favors.”

“Hase….Ryo” he tried out the nickname “what do you mean?”

He finally noticed. He saw Hase crying, silently and terribly. The tears on his face cutting rivers into his skin. It looked like his face was made of porcelain, and the mask was finally beginning to crack.

“Like I said man, I only have so much time.” as the words slipped out, tiny flecks of skin fell from his face and hands, rising to the sky, instead of falling to the ground. As they rose, they blackened, as if turning to ash, and disintegrated.

“Ryoji! Ryo! What the hell is going on! You can’t do this to me, you bastard! I can’t lose you again!”

There it was, the admission. Hase wondered when he’d realized, but at least he knew. The boy ran a hand through his hair and sighed, tears still falling.

“I’m sorry.” was all he said.

Jounouchi watched in absolute terror as Hase’s began to fall apart and drift away. Whole sections of his body, becoming ash far too black to be anything in the world, black and deep as space, and rise into the sky, through a large zipper that had opened above them.

In a few minutes, Hase was gone. Jounouchi fell to his knees, sobbing bitterly. 

His head felt so heavy, as if it were full of water, which his eyes were only too happy to empty onto the ground. His cries were punctuated with screams.

“Hase! HASE! You fucker! You can’t kiss me like that and then run away!” he sobbed into the ground, pounding his fist on the grass.

Eventually, he ran out of tears, but he stayed prostrate on the ground for a long time.

Eventually sounds pierced through his grief. He heard the sound of rocks hitting water, the hum of people talking, the buzz of cicadas. All of these sounds swelled up growing in volume with every passing second. The cacophony erupting in his head was far too much to take. He wrapped his arms around his head, trying to block out the sight and sound of too many people and sobbed as an unearthly buzzing overwhelmed him.

His eyes snapped open. Hideyasu Jounouchi was back in his bed, alone.


End file.
